BurmaNet News, December 5, 2006

[Editor]

December 5, 2006 Issue # 3099


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar democracy party urges junta to re-open Red Cross offices
AFP: India, Myanmar car rally skirts history, Aung San Suu Kyi
Japan Economic Newswire: Myanmar junta to begin registering voters

REGIONAL
AFP: 114 Myanmar refugees wash up on Thai shores

INTERNATIONAL
Toronto Star: Burmese villager wins Canadian human rights award
LA Times: Bolton resigns from U.N. post

OPINION / OTHER
International Herald Tribune: Turning refugees into 'terrorists' - Anna
Husarska

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

December 5, Agence France Presse
Myanmar democracy party urges junta to re-open Red Cross offices

Yangon: Myanmar's National League for Democracy, the party of detained
Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, on Tuesday called for the military
junta to reopen Red Cross offices that it recently shut down.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said last week the
junta had ordered it to shut down all five of its field offices outside
Yangon, and rejected the humanitarian agency's repeated calls for the
resumption of prison visits.

"We strongly ask the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) to allow
humanitarian activities according to the Geneva convention by reopening
ICRC offices that were instructed to close down," the NLD said in a
statement.

The State Peace and Development Council is the junta body that oversees
the running of the country formally known as Burma.

"Closing down the ICRC office not only prohibits humanitarian assistance,
but also effects those suffering social and health problems," the
statement from the NLD's central executive committee said.

Myanmar's police chief said last Wednesday Red Cross offices were closed
"temporarily" while the military government made new rules for their
operations.

However, the Red Cross has previously said the regime gave no reasons for
the closure of the offices in Mandalay, Mawlamyine, Hpa-an, Taunggyi and
Kyaing Tong.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and the United Nations
estimates there are some 1,100 political prisoners there.

They include democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house
arrest in Yangon for most of the past 17 years.

Her NLD party won 1990 elections in a landslide victory, but the military
refused to recognize the result.

Between 1999 and late 2005, the Red Cross made 453 visits to prisons and
labor camps across Myanmar, one of the world's poorest and most isolated
nations, with a dismal human rights record.

But the junta stopped the Red Cross from making independent prison visits
to check on the condition of detainees in December 2005, when the agency
rejected a request that it be accompanied by government-affiliated
organizations.

____________________________________

December 5, Agence France Presse
India, Myanmar car rally skirts history, Aung San Suu Kyi - Ed Lane

New Delhi: The armies of India and Myanmar pushed aside talk of detained
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi Tuesday as they launched a three-week car
rally to Yangon -- in sports utility vehicles from sponsor General Motors.

The event, to honour World War II dead from both sides, was flagged off at
India Gate, the British colonial-era war memorial in the centre of New
Delhi that was built to honour Indian soldiers who died fighting for
Britain.

A spokesman for General Motors said the world's largest car company "does
not conduct business in Myanmar" and added that the company "does not
provide any money to the Myanmar army, connected to the rally or
otherwise".

GM Asia-Pacific spokesman Rob Leggat said the event was only aimed at
honouring "the 1,800 Indian army soldiers who died in Burma during World
War II".

But the GM sponsorship was obvious on Tuesday as Myanmar's chief of
general staff, General Thura Shwe Mann, watched six GM vehicles driven by
Indian and Myanmarese soldiers wearing GM-emblazoned caps head eastwards.

Myanmar has been under US economic sanctions over its human rights record
and because a succession of military leaders have held power since
elections in 1990 won by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy
were nullified.

Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She has repeatedly
been placed under house arrest and occasionally freed under international
pressure. In 2003, she was arrested again and remains locked in her home.

Leggat said in an email that GM adhered to the sanctions.

And Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who was attending the launch of
the rally, asked reporters not to "make this a controversial day" when a
question came up about the fate of one of the world's most prominent
dissidents.

Much of Indian and Burmese history during World War II was also ignored as
the rally literature did not include any mention of rebel fighters from
both sides.

Aung San Suu Kyi's father and major Burmese independence leader Aung San
was originally a supporter of the Japanese against the British, but
switched sides and joined the allies as Tokyo's fortunes waned.
He was assassinated after the war by suspected military rivals and the
current military rulers have abolished or renamed memorials to him.

In addition, the two sides made no mention of the Indian National Army
soldiers who were armed and trained by the Japanese to fight British
allied forces under the command of Indian independence leader Subhas
Chandra Bose. Bose was also allied with Aung San.

The Bose-led army, whose soldiers faced prosecution by the British after
the war as deserters, was later honoured after the country gained
independence in 1947.

A spokesman for the Indian military at the event said he could not comment
on why GM was selected as a sponsor and said the lack of a mention of
Bose, a hero to many in his home state of what is now West Bengal, was not
a decision by the military.

"You'll have to ask GM (General Motors)," he said about the sponsorship,
adding that in regard to Bose "the military is apolitical".

Indian army chief Singh, meanwhile, praised the "cooperation between the
armies of the two countries". He thanked GM, as well as Indian firms JK
tyres and sports utility vehicle firm Mahindra and Mahindra, for providing
equipment.

India has sought help from Myanmar to battle separatist insurgencies in
its northeast as rebels use bases in the neighbouring country to launch
attacks on security forces. More than 50,000 people have died in various
insurgencies in the seven states of the region since independence.

The 1,633 kilometre (1,015 mile) porous border region is also a key
smuggling route for gemstones and narcotics from the Golden Triangle
region of Laos, China and Myanmar.

____________________________________

December 5, Japan Economic Newswire
Myanmar junta to begin registering voters

Yangon: Myanmar's military government will this month begin preparing
voter lists possibly for a referendum on a constitution being drafted by
the ongoing National Convention, it was learned Tuesday.

Homes in Yangon and other towns and villages will be asked to show their
family lists mentioning the ages of family members. Citizens aged 18 and
over are eligible to vote.

Officials did not mention the purpose of collecting voters' names.

Convention sources indicated that the current session of the National
Convention will end later this month.

The new constitution is to be based on guidelines agreed by the convention
and adopted by the referendum. Multiparty general elections are to follow,
in accordance with the constitution, and a democratic government is to be
formed by the parliament session held by those elected, according to the
junta's "road map" announced in August 2003.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

December 5, Agence France Presse
114 Myanmar refugees wash up on Thai shores

Bangkok: Over 100 refugees from military-ruled Myanmar were arrested when
their boat washed up on Thai shores early Tuesday after at least 10 days
afloat at sea, police and rights workers said.

"Police have arrested 114 Burmese (Myanmese) men," said Anukoon Nooket, an
officer with Ta Kua Pa police in southern Thailand's Phang Nga province.

"They said they came from the Maungdaw town near the border with
Bangladesh 10 days ago to look for jobs in Thailand," he added.

Htoo Chit, director of NGO Grassroots Human Rights Education and
Development Committee, said the men were ethnic minority Rohyinga Muslims
from Myanmar's Arakan state, and included a young boy who said he was 10.

He said the men had in fact left Myanmar on November 16 and were close to
starving when they arrived in Thailand at about 4am (2100 GMT) Tuesday
morning.

"They have been oppressed by the Burmese military regime, (through) forced
labour, forced relocation ... so they cannot survive anymore," Htoo Chit
told AFP, adding they pooled their money to buy the boat to escape.

"Unfortunately their boat was damaged," said the rights worker, who
interviewed the migrants when police took them to a local market for food
before detaining them.

He said a Thai fishing boat had come upon the stricken migrants and
directed them to Khuk Khak beach, near Thailand's southern tourist town of
Khao Lak, where villagers called the police after their arrival.

Anukoon said the vessel carrying the migrants was basic, with no sail or
roof to shelter them, but said the men did not appear to be starving.

"They looked tanned like people who were under the sunlight for a long
time, but they still looked healthy," he told AFP.

"They were charged with illegal entry, and the case is expected to be
submitted to court tomorrow."

Tens of thousands of the Rohyinga ethnic group fled persecution in Myanmar
to Bangladesh in the 1990s, but are slowly being repatriated.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Myanmese workers are registered in Thailand,
while about one million illegal migrants -- 80 percent of them from
Myanmar -- are thought to reside in the kingdom.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

December 5, The Toronto Star
Burmese villager wins Canadian human rights award - Leslie Scrivener

`This ... made me more courageous,' says Su Su Nway

Military officials watch her every movement. People are forbidden to talk
to her. She has survived Burma's fearsome Insein prison, though her health
is poor.

Su Su Nway, a Burmese villager with uncommon courage, will be honoured in
Canada tomorrow for defying the forced labour practices widely used by the
rough military dictatorship that runs her country.

"In this 21st century, to think people have to fight against forced labour
— no pay, no negotiations. With torture and jailing and killing, it has
become the signature of this regime," says Jean-Louis Roy, president of
Rights and Democracy, the Montreal-based group that is giving Su Su Nway
its John Humphrey Freedom Award.

Su Su Nway won't attend tomorrow's ceremony in Ottawa because there is no
assurance she could return to Burma, said Roy, who likens the nation also
known as Myanmar to a prison.

"This award made me more courageous and active," Su Su Nway said, in
response to written questions submitted by the Toronto Star. "I feel like
the world is watching us. I feel like we are not alone."

In 2004, she took local junta leaders to court for forcing her and her
neighbours to build roads in their village without pay. Villagers who defy
the military can be fined, imprisoned or have property confiscated.

Some have tried suicide, Su Su Nway says.

"This is terrible for me. I don't know how to describe it, other than you
feel you are back in the 14th century."

Unexpectedly, the judge ruled in her favour. The local chairman and deputy
were sentenced to eight months. Neither served his sentence, she said,
"which tells you the legal system is still controlled by the junta."

News of her victory rippled through Burma and around the world,
emboldening others to challenge the military's roughshod use of Burmese
civilians as mine sweepers, porters and labourers.

She is the first "ordinary" person to succeed in challenging the junta
leadership, says Kevin Heppner, Canadian founder of the Karen Human Rights
Group, based on the Thai-Burmese border. "It makes her achievement more
special — that you can actually win a case against them. It ... sends a
message to authorities in Burma: `Maybe you don't have the impunity you
thought you have.'"

Officials struck back with a vengeance. Su Su Nway, who is 34, slightly
built and suffers from heart disease, was charged with uttering
obscenities at the new town chairman in a public place. Denying the
charges, as a Burmese Buddhist, she said she would never do such things.
Sentenced to 18 months in Rangoon's Insein Prison, she joined 1,100
political prisoners.

"Insein Prison really looks like it is from an ancient age," she says.
"Humans are treated like slaves. There is no law and order. No proper food
and clear water. No proper medical treatment. Huge corruption."

The International Labour Organization (ILO) exerted intense pressure; Su
Su Nway was released after eight months.

"She took a very high chance to act and not to become a slave of the army
or the chairman of the village," said Cecilia Brighi, an ILO board member,
speaking from Rome. "These days there are lot of actions in the factories
against working conditions, so she's set a good example for people to show
they can do it. She's now very well known, like Aung San Suu Kyi."

(From a village background, Su Su Nway did not have the high profile and
elite background of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of
Burma and Nobel laureate the junta holds under house arrest.)

International recognition comes with the award, so Su Su Nway will likely
have greater protection in Burma. Tellingly, she kept her Insein uniform.

"She's pretty sure she'll be thrown in prison," says Heppner. "It may not
stop them from detaining her, but they are less likely to torture her to
death."

Other winners of the award, named for the Canadian professor who wrote the
first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, include: Dr.
Sima Samar of Afghanistan (2001) and Yan Christian Warinussy of West Papua
(2005).

Questions for this story were submitted through Rights and Democracy to
the Democratic Voice of Burma, a radio-TV station in Oslo, Norway. They
were emailed to a contact in Burma who put the questions to Su Su Nway in
person and relayed her reply by telephone.

____________________________________

December 5, LA Times
Bolton resigns from U.N. post - Maggie Farley and James Gerstenzang

The diplomat knew he couldn't get votes in Senate. Colleagues praise his
tenacity but won't miss his rigidity.

United Nations: John R. Bolton, the pugnacious U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, is known for not giving up. But after meeting with his
mentor Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday to discuss ways to stay at
the U.N. without a Senate confirmation, he decided it was time to quit.

In a letter to President Bush that the White House made public Monday
morning, Bolton said: "After careful consideration, I have concluded that
my service in your administration should end when the current recess
appointment expires."

Bolton's resignation, along with the election of a Democrat-dominated
Congress and selection of a new secretary-general, may provide a fresh
start for U.N.-U.S. relations that have been tense since the Iraq war
began, diplomats said. It also signals that the Bush administration is
less willing, or less able, to go around Congress to push through an
unpopular agenda.

Bush accepted the resignation Monday with "deep regret."

"I'm not happy about it," the president said in the Oval Office as he
thanked Bolton for his service. "I think he deserved to be confirmed. And
the reason why I think he deserved to be confirmed is because I know he
did a fabulous job for the country."

Bush criticized key senators on the Foreign Relations Committee for
blocking Bolton's confirmation, "even though he enjoys majority support in
the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work
at a sensitive and important time."

"This stubborn obstructionism ill-serves our country and discourages men
and women of talent from serving their nation," Bush said.

In August 2005, Bush installed Bolton at the U.N. during a congressional
recess because he couldn't get enough support in the Senate.

Until Thursday, U.S. officials said, the White House was exploring ways to
appoint Bolton to a position that would allow him to continue his U.N.
duties without facing a confirmation hearing. His term will end with this
term of Congress, probably later this month.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Monday that it had "become
pretty obvious" that there were insufficient votes in the Senate to
confirm Bolton.

The president singled out Bolton's efforts to obtain unanimous Security
Council support for resolutions on North Korea's military and nuclear
activities. He also praised him for helping bring pressure on Iran to
suspend uranium enrichment and for working to bring peace to Darfur.

At the United Nations, where most of his colleagues maintain a grudging
respect for Bolton's tenacity, intellect and clear positions, there were
mixed reactions to word of his resignation. His style alienated European
nations that have typically been allies, and other colleagues said that he
might have accomplished more if he were less rigid and abrasive.

When Bolton took over the rotating Security Council presidency in
February, he declared that things would be different: The council would
start on time, and diplomats would abandon their set speeches and engage
in unscripted discussion of the issues. His fellow ambassadors started
calling him "the schoolmarm," reflecting thinly veiled resentment.

"Starting on time is a form of discipline," he said at the time. "I
brought the gavel down at 10. I was the only one in the room, though."

"His absence will be conspicuous," said Tanzanian Ambassador Augustine
Mahiga, who sits near Bolton in the Security Council. "He leaves the U.N.
with the reputation as someone not easy to deal with. His style tended to
be quite imposing, maybe well-intentioned, but creating difficulties in
developing consensus."

Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya has often been on the opposite side of
issues, such as Darfur and Iran, but said he respected Bolton's diligence
and command of the facts. "He is serious about the American objectives
here in reforming the United Nations, and he pushed hard," Wang told
reporters. "But of course sometimes in order to achieve the objective you
have to work together with others."

Another ambassador said that when he couldn't work with Bolton, he would
work around him. "When he was blocking the way, we would just call Condi,"
he said, referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Many times,
Condi was much more cooperative."

There was near celebration on the 38th floor, where Kofi Annan and his
Cabinet sit. Annan and Bolton have a prickly relationship, and Annan, in a
rare show of indignation, recently accused the U.S. ambassador of
"intimidation." Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, a vocal
critic who has engaged in public arguments with Bolton, was restrained
Monday.

"John Bolton's problem is last month's election, not the U.N. But
obviously, while one admired his skillful use of the media, we longed for
an American partner who could really work with us to achieve reform here.
And when he couldn't, we often had to work around him with others."

"He certainly enjoyed a significant amount of respect for the clarity and
firmness of his analysis, for being innovative, for being willing to do
things differently," said Colin Keating, executive director of the
Security Council Report, a think tank based at Columbia University.

Keating said that Bolton could not be blamed for the lack of progress on
Iran and Sudan, nor could he be credited solely for obtaining unanimous
support for resolutions on North Korea sanctions and a cease-fire in
Lebanon.

But even his critics acknowledge that getting the council to discuss human
rights and drug trafficking in Myanmar, formerly Burma, was a major
accomplishment in the face of opposition from China.

"The process of getting that on the agenda is quite a significant
achievement," Keating said. "It took a high degree of professionalism."

Bolton's successor will walk into the middle of sensitive discussions on
Iran's nuclear program, the Sudanese government's resistance to
peacekeepers in Darfur, security issues in Lebanon and Somalia, and the
U.N.'s involvement in Iraq.

That makes Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq who has just
announced his departure, a much-talked-about candidate to replace Bolton.
Some U.N. officials, however, worry that choosing him would signal a U.S.
desire to use the U.N. to facilitate a hasty exit from Iraq.

Former U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Williamson
also has been approached for the job. Other names mentioned are George J.
Mitchell, a former Democratic senator from Maine; Paula J. Dobriansky, the
undersecretary of State for global affairs; and Jim Leach, a former
Republican congressman from Iowa who has good relations with Democrats.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

December 4, International Herald Tribune
Turning refugees into 'terrorists' - Anna Husarska

The Karen refugees from this camp on the Thai-Burmese border do not know
it yet, but perhaps their miserable existence in legal limbo will end
soon, thanks to the results of the midterm elections in the United States.

The new Congress in Washington will have a full plate of issues to deal
with, domestic and international. Among the wrongs to right is one of
global reach that hurts refugees who have already been victims in their
own countries and are now in need of international protection.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress passed immigration and national
security laws that use new definitions of who is a terrorist. Instead of
the previous definition, which focused on the targeting of civilians,
terrorists are now defined as individuals or groups who use any dangerous
device for virtually any reason, including in defense against persecution
or tyranny.

Thus the law makes no distinction between genuinely bad individuals who
blow up planes, subway stations or other civilian locations and take
lives, and freedom fighters who carry out a legitimate struggle against a
repressive regime. Among the latter, many have a well-founded fear of
persecution and need to be resettled in another country as a form of
protection. This is when the draconian laws hit them. These heroes who
stood up to oppression back home are branded terrorists and as such cannot
be admitted to the United States.

As if this labeling were not indiscriminate enough, there is an even
harsher one, "material support." This may sound like an innocent synonym
for philanthropy or charity, but in the United States it means "providing
aid," in this instance to "terrorists." And since "terrorist" is nowadays
such a broad category, the ranks of those barred from entering the United
States are growing. Those deemed to have provided material support to
terrorists include West African women who were raped by rebels and forced
to house and feed their attackers.

This overzealous legislative approach has had devastating effects on
America's traditionally generous resettlement program. In the fiscal year
2006, instead of the planned 70,000 new refugees, only 41,000 were
accepted.

To its credit, after a barrage of criticism, the U.S. administration has
recognized the deficiencies of these definitions and issued three waivers
concerning providers of "material support" (although the waivers do not
apply to those who were actual freedom fighters).

This opened the possibility for more than 9,000 Karen refugees living here
in Tham Hin to be considered for resettlement in the United States, as
well as the rest of the Karen in Thailand and Chin refugees from Myanmar
living in Thailand, Malaysia and India.

A side effect of the bar on combatants is that Tham Hin is becoming a
repository of heroes, a Hall of Fame for Karen who courageously defended
their people against the attacks committed by the Burmese junta but who
are stranded in this camp.

Neither are the former Lao Hmong combatants whom I talked to in Bangkok
covered by any waiver, although they were recruited by the CIA during the
Vietnam War. The U.S. legislation brands them as terrorists even though
they fought at the direction of the United States.

The same applies to the Vietnamese Montagnards, who were so trusted by the
U.S. special forces, and to the Cuban anti-Castro groups called Alzados
who in the 1960s had the full support of President John F. Kennedy. Now,
160 of them and their families are barred forever from going to the United
States.

The child soldiers I met in eastern Congo or in northern Uganda - in
demobilization centers where they are helped back into civilian life -
have been drafted by force into rebel groups. But since there is no
exception for acts committed under duress, these children will never be
able to come to the United States, should they need to find a new home.

Some individual stories border on the absurd. After guerrillas took
livestock as war tax from two sisters, Colombian peasants, and then raped
them and killed the husband of one of them, the two women were advised to
apply to Canada for resettlement. This, said the UN refugee agency helping
them, was because "items (e.g. farm animals) provided under duress are
still deemed to be material support under U.S. law."

Some other stories are human dramas "made in the U.S.A." Kawk Pah Khat,
76, nicknamed Silver Fox, is part of the camp committee here in Tham Hin,
a proud veteran of the Karen National Liberation Army and for more than
eight years a political prisoner. His elder son, 28, is already in Utica,
Minnesota, with his wife and two children. His younger son was just
approved for resettlement to the United States. But Kawk Pah Khat may have
to go to Norway because American soil is off limits for him: He is a
"combatant."

When President George W. Bush, speaking directly to the citizens of
undemocratic countries, said during his second inaugural address that
"When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you," this bizarre
situation could not have been what he had in mind.

Let's hope the new U.S. Congress rewrites terrorist definitions used in
its legislation so that bona fide refugees will be fairly considered for
refugee and asylum status - not punished for the courage and commitment
they have demonstrated in opposing vicious regimes.